CHARLES FINLEY
Football, Basketball and Track, 1956-60
Inducted November 7, 1981
 
Another standout-two-sport athlete for SMS and a performer in more recent years is Charles Finley, a four-year letterman in football and track from 1956 through 1960.  Finley was a regular for SMS on the gridiron at end, and operated on both offense and defense for Coach Aldo Sebben.  The Lockwood native had five receptions for 90 yards and one touchdown his senior year and was a solid blocker and outstanding defensive player as one of the Bears’ co-captains.  Sebben was also Finley’s coach in track in a career in which Finley was the first conference athlete to exceed distances of 50 feet in the shot put and 150 feet in the discus.  Finley notched the SMS record in the shot put in 1959 for both indoor and outdoor competition, with the outdoor performance also setting a league record.  The following year, he continued his assault of the record books in both events.  Finley, who also played junior varsity basketball early in his SMS career, was given the Virgil Cheek Athletic Achievement Award when he graduated from SMS in 1960.  After he left SMS, he was a successful high school coach at Sarcoxie and Lebanon and in 1972 took over as head football coach at one of the Bears’ arch athletic rivals, the University of Missouri-Rolla.